Chemours Community STEM Hub Opens at EastSide Charter School

North Wilmington, Delaware now has a new resource for the community as the Chemours Community STEM Hub at EastSide Charter School officially opened its doors. The Chemours Community STEM Hub is a state-of-the-art, premier access point for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The new building houses EastSide Charter School’s APEX (Middle School Honors) and STEM programs and includes a maker’s space, 3D printing, engineering, and other STEM-related activities. 

In addition to serving the students of EastSide, the Hub also doubles as a community center after school, on weekends, and in the summer with out-of-school programming spanning mentoring, robotics, coding, chemistry, biology, renewable energy, and Science Olympiad competitions.

Part of Chemours’ ChemFEST school partnership program launched in 2021, focused on championing change toward a more diverse STEM workforce, EastSide Charter School was among the first school partners, receiving a $4 million dollar donation which spurred the creation of the new Hub. Investing in under-resourced middle schools in its footprint communities, Chemours works to ensure that younger students are exposed to STEM education early on, which research has shown is critical and most influential when started before students reach high school and begin choosing their courses. 

Chemours President and CEO, Denise Dignam shared, “Through my own journey to becoming a chemical engineer, I understand that giving students access to STEM resources can help inspire and allow them to see themselves in a STEM career. That's important because these students will be a part of our next generation of innovators and problem solvers--our future STEM workforce.”

The new Hub supports workforce development, offers health services, and enhances STEM education opportunities for local students, helping to meet the critical need for current and future scientists, engineers, technologists and more.